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oh i remember that one from english lessons on highschool

it's interesting how they had to basically spell out the "meaning" of the poem in class, guess i must have learned *something* in the mean time

Yes, that's one thing that I never enjoyed in my old English classes...  "Okay, guys, let's analyze and then re-analyze this piece of work.  We will keep analyzing until we sap any sort of meaningfulness out of it that you might have seen in it, at first glance.  Once we are finished, hopefully you will simply be bored of and nauseated by the work.  In this way, you will lose all the appreciation for it that you may have once held."

Don't know if anyone already posted this.

I always find myself coming back to "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

OZYMANDIAS
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said:,ÄîTwo vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

As to favourite lyrics, Real Music,Ñ¢ doesn't have lyrics... 

Seuss' green eggs and ham.
"Don't worry, son ... it'll be fun."
Seuss raped me, goddamn.

NT: self-deprecation in 17 syllables

In short, yes, Tao does not have "Bob". But "Bob" has Tao.

Actually, he's about as anti-Tao as you can possibly get.

"Middle of the road" my ass...The only thing about "Bob" that's middle of the road is the hoodpiece on his Toronado, while he's drunkenly driving back to the motel with Suzy Rottencrotch.

Isn't "Bob's" Path of Least Resistance,Ñ¢ very similar to Taoism's "wu-wei"?

passivity and fatalism... yes. but isn't the idea that by balancing and flowing you can avoid the situations that you'd need to be non-passive? as for fatalism, any philosophy or religion that denies that has its head up its ass -- control over your situation is almost always an illusion, regardless of how much shining jewelry and/or subservient females you dominate.

yes, I don't think "wei wu-wei" or "action through non-action" necesarily means being passive all the time.  Instead, when you do things, you should finish your task, but then not dwell on it.  Also, they say you aren't supposed to desire, but rather be content.  So if you are truly content and accept the world, then you have nothing to desire and you won't have to engage in superfluous action.

for your comment on fatalism

But it also implies extreme passivity and Fatalism.

You say that like you think it's a bad thing 

But, I think Taoism is a little more optimistic than that description, although I could be wrong.

At the end of the day, all religions are manisfestations of the Tao, but most people probably just don't get this.
"Tao" in itself is a placeholder for a concept that cannot really be named or described, for in doing so, you have already broken it down from its true shapeless form.


So .... teh Tao pwns everything else FTW?

Rule number 1 of Tao Club:
You do not talk about TAO CLUB

I assume you are talking about something like Taoism?

Rule number 2 of Tao Club:
You DO NOT talk about TAO CLUB.

Also, "the SLACK that can be talked about is not the true SLACK"

That's better.

To me, Taoism always made the most sense to as a spiritual philosophy.  That is, because it accepts that things are already as they should be.  A lot of other religions and whatnot always claim that our natural state is somehow flawed and needs correction (e.g. Original Sin in Christianity).  But with Taoism, no one is trying to argue with nature.

At the end of the day, all religions are manisfestations of the Tao, but most people probably just don't get this.
"Tao" in itself is a placeholder for a concept that cannot really be named or described, for in doing so, you have already broken it down from its true shapeless form.

So .... teh Tao pwns everything else FTW?

There are many way of looking at the world, you can choose to follow a belief system that promises you a "end goal" if you follow it properly, or you can choose to follow a belief system that's only goal is that of experiencing the journey itself, without regard to the "goal".

I assume you are talking about something like Taoism?

This is why I consider myself a discordian. No one has to tell me what it is or what to do to be a "Good" discordian, I just have some suspicions and I follow my whims.
I have friends who are sub-genii, and are really cool, we get along fine, but I personally feel I don't need to pay someone $30 just to get slack, but I'm not opposed to anyone who does, I've seen what you get for that $30 and it ain't bad really, but I can live without it.
But even when they pay their $30, some of them are still trying to figure out what slack is.

I think the $30 is worth it just for the lulz alone.

Also, "the SLACK that can be talked about is not the true SLACK" 

Where is your evidence?

To me, Discordianism is one big collection of "koans," while "Slack" is analogous to the "Tao."

Clearly, that's when all us SubGenii will get to leave Earth with the Sex Goddesses in the flying saucers.

If Discordianism is an interpretation of Zen Buddhism, then the Church of the SubGenius is an interpretation of Taoism?

"Therefore the Master concerns himself
with the depths and not the surface,
with the fruit and not the flower.
He has no will of his own.
He dwells in reality,
and lets all illusions go."

There's seems to be a dichotomy in everyday life of which you have to choose a side. 

NO THERE ISN'T!

YES THERE IS!

(see, that's a dichotomy  )

Um, yeah.  That was the idea of my post.

JOKE IS OVER.

I kind of knew that, but I just wanted to see MC Hammer dancing...

There's seems to be a dichotomy in everyday life of which you have to choose a side. 

NO THERE ISN'T!

YES THERE IS!

(see, that's a dichotomy  )

I feel so PoMo ...